Another Birthday!

Alan came by for a visit last week to test drive his brand new German bearclaw spruce and cocobolo Deep Baritone. He left it with me so that I could let the tension soak in and fine-tune his setup. Well Alan, it's ready when you are. I really love the beauty of the cocobolo bridge and fingerboard. I like the look so much that I drove up to my supplier to hand-select about a dozen matching sets with beautiful webby figure. I'll definitely be suggesting this to my customers. Alan chose to have a soundhole in the side of his guitar. The side hole passes a relatively bass-heavy balance, which really fits the deep baritone's register. Anywhere within eight feet of the guitar there's a distinct stereo-phasing effect from the dual soundholes and it really adds richness to the tone. In blind tests, we were unable to hear any kind of difference fifteen feet out in front of the guitar. Good idea, Alan! I'll be suggesting this to future baritone customers. By the way, that's Stevie Wonder with Alan. Isn't she lovely?

Alan's Cocobolo Baritone is Back from Lacquer

Addam Stark has completed his magic, coating Alan's German bearclaw spruce and cocobolo baritone in a super-thin coat of nitro, and the results are beautiful. Next I'll be installing the frets into the lovely quartersawn cocobolo fingerboard, making a bridge and gluing it on, installing the tuners, nut and saddle, and dialing in the setup. Alan's going to be coming through Santa Cruz in a few days so I'm hoping he'll have time to stop by and have a look.

Koa/Malaysian Blackwood Grand Concert Ready for Lacquer

Dave's koa and Malaysian blackwood Grand Concert is ready to take over to Addam Stark's for lacquer. I can't wait to see how it's going to look!

Bloodwood Binding

Dave's Koa/Malaysian blackwood Grand Concert is looking good. I've installed the bloodwood binding and done a first round of finish sanding. The box has a real lively and loud feel to it. Next I'll be working on the neck.

The Fun Continues

Who says a koa-topped guitar needs to have koa back and sides? In this case I'm using Malaysian blackwood, which is actually a kind of ebony. As you can see in the pictures, this Grand Concert's gonna be a beauty!
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Gallery Three

Randy Reynolds' Great Website

Wow, I just got done enjoying Randy Reynolds' Website for his Classical Guitars. Before now I'd never heard of Randy, but his site really has me curious and it inspires confidence in his abilities and candor. I really love his beautiful design touches, the shapely bridge and peghead. He has a very straightforward and unpretentious way of talking about his design ideas. It's sober talk in a climate of sound and fury, and it's very refreshing. So if you're looking for a really interesting site...here you go. Thanks Randy!